Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[THE_WIZARD_]

Speaking of fascinating...what a convo this must have been...heh...

[THE_WIZARD_]

I'll translate...

"Mmmmphmjhbjacbpia"

"nnhyyyatenmph!!"

"Mmmmph!!"

[Mike]

I think they actually may assist DJT because he is more beatable vs. China Joe...

Interesting. I could see that.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Just like when they assisted Mitt Romney...

[THE_WIZARD_]

They only want to injure DJT...enough to make him beatable...but not enough to defeat him in the primaries...then in the General...they will go back to annihilation mode...

[AlabamAlum]

In other news, The Chairman is old, Kamala is a moron and DJT is a total prick of misery.

Prick of misery. That’s an old Volmillion phrase, correct? God, what a funny guy. I miss his posts, no doubt.

Do you stay in touch with Wildcat at all? I think we need her here. I mean, for Christ’s sake she is a PhD who decided to go to law school due to some obvious unrequited love she had for you.

[THE_WIZARD_]

You know what I miss? You STFU...

[Dr. Strangelove]

So what's being made clear in this so-called Twitter hearing is that the Trump White House frequently made requests for Twitter to remove posts, most amusingly one where Chrissy Teigen called Trump a "pussy ass bitch".

[THE_WIZARD_]

6 of the biggest Biden lies from last night...

1) Biden has reduced the budget deficit by $1.4 trillion.

Actually, no president in modern times even comes close to Biden in terms of fiscal recklessness. In his first two years, the national debt has risen by more than $4.2 trillion. That’s more than in any two-year period in American history.

2) Biden inherited an economy in freefall.
Wrong. When COVID hit these shores in early 2020, the economy was shut down in the face of the once-in-a-half-century pandemic. But by 2020’s second half, the economy soared by more than 20%, and millions of Americans were moving back into their jobs. This was a historic recovery.

One week after the election, thanks to Operation Warp Speed, the COVID vaccine was announced, which set the table for an even stronger recovery. Instead, the economy has been limping forward with a weakling economic growth rate last year of 1.5%.

3) Inflation was high when Biden entered office.

Biden’s economic lies show he’s either a deluded narcissist or a total fraud
Huh? The average inflation rate during the Trump presidency was 2%, and in January 2021, the month Biden entered office, inflation was 1.4%. Eighteen months later, in summer 2022, inflation rose above 9% — the highest in 40 years. It ended the year at 6.5%. Food prices are still so high that CNBC just reported: “Amid food inflation, more shoppers turn to dollar stores for groceries.”

4) Biden has brought down gas prices.
When President Donald Trump left office, the gas price was $2.59 a gallon nationally. In June 2022, it was nearly double, a modern-day high of $5.004 a gallon. Today gas is $3.48 a gallon — roughly $1 a gallon higher than when Biden entered office. And according to Gas Buddy, which provides real-time prices and projections, gas at the pump is expected to rise back to $4 a gallon this year.

5) Biden is doing all he can to secure the border.
This may be the whopper of them all. Since Biden took office, he’s issued some 90 executive orders undoing Trump’s successful border enforcement policies — most notably stopping wall construction on the southern border and even suspending the successful “Stay in Mexico” policy (a move so wrongheaded, he was recently forced to reverse it). In 2021, there were 1.7 million border encounters, the highest ever until 2022, when that number surged above 2 million.

6) Biden is increasing domestic oil and gas production.
Wrong. A 2022 Committee to Unleash Prosperity study by the University of Chicago’s Casey Mulligan found that oil production would be 2 million to 3 million barrels a day higher if Biden had simply followed the Trump energy plan.

America would have produced nearly $200 billion more oil last year if not for Biden’s war on fossil fuels. We wouldn’t have had to release one teaspoon of oil from our strategic reserve. Trump issued permits for drilling on 100 million acres of federal land. Biden has issued fewer drilling permits than any president since World War II’s end.

[CGVT]

This screeching baboon is the same dumbass that goes to a 6th grade girls basketball game, doesn't know the fucking rules and screams "that's travelling" and "3 seconds" at the ref all night.

She has no fucking business in Congress

The "selective" outrage is justified.

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[THE_WIZARD_]

You would do her and you know it.

[CGVT]

You would do her and you know it.

Naw, That's more your type

[Dr. Strangelove]

Haven't been paying attention to that Murdaugh trial but it's been disrupted today over a bomb threat. Don't remember that happening in prominent trials before.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Being pushed aside by constant, mostly useless, reporting and analysis of Biden's State of the Union address is that Zelenski is touring Europe this week drumming up support for jets to Ukraine. His snappy slogan is, "We have freedom. Give us aircraft to help us protect it."

The UK seems to be on the verge of delivering Tornado aircraft to Ukraine. I don't know about it's utility there. It's an aircraft that first entered service in the UK in 1974, has had multiple upgrades, is no longer in regular RAF service but remains in front line service in Italy and Germany. You may recall when the Navy's F14 and the USAF's F111 entered service in the 70s featuring this swept wing crap that was hard to maintain and costly to operate. The aircraft does fit the Russian bomber interceptor role it was designed for. It does possess a ground attack capability but it's first and foremost, a high altitude interceptor.

It's pretty clear to me that talks between the parties about giving Ukraine Tornadoes signals the Ukrainians are prioritizing shooting down Russian bombers capable of launching a wide range of cruise missiles that are crippling Ukrainian infrastructure. This is an air superiority type mission capability, something neither side has been able to achieve and would be essential for Ukraine to undertake any kind of sizeable offensive operation going forward. The Russians launch these cruise missiles from stand-off bombers operating in Belarus airspace and from over the Black Sea out of range of Ukrainian air defenses. The Tornado is probably pretty good at doing that but escalating to that level of air ops, IOW, shooting down Russian bombers, even from Ukrainian airspace, is risky. The threat that these aircraft could patrol and then engage Russian bombers though would be decent enough to give the Russian air force pause. Willing to risk greater involvement by the west in the form of strengthening Ukraine's ability to control the airspace over Ukraine is a big deal and could give Putin another reason to reconsider his objectives. He has certainly demonstrated a reluctance to piss off NATO members by taking steps to move Russia to a war footing at home signaling he fears NATO involvement.

When the Russians first invaded Ukraine, they employed ground attack jet and helo aircraft and lost a shit ton of them doing that mostly, at that time in the war, from shoulder fired Stinger missiles. Air power is just not used by the Russians much anymore because of early losses and that they can't integrate it with other army and air defense components with a high risk of friendly fire shoot downs of their own aircraft. For a supposed modern and highly capable armed force, that integration of airpower is not something the Russians do, is quite a revelation.

There's also been talk of sending F16s to Ukraine. IMO, that's the better option. Lots of them in EU air forces, around a long time, easy to maintain and requiring only minimal training to operate them. The RAF doesn't operate them and never have. It's obvious then that the UK's talk about providing Tornado aircraft is a one-off event that could be perceived does not directly involve NATO - a plus for politicians that fear that expanding NATO involvement would drag Europe into a wider war with Russia. It was the introduction of NATO/US airpower that ended the Balkan wars 20 years ago. My belief is that a serious effort by the west to help the Ukrainians establish control of the airspace overhead the battle area is long overdue and would be a game charger. Of course, Putin could respond. Fuck him, the truth is the western allies, led by the US and UK are already at war with Russia.

[Mike]

Is there any doubt or suspense in that trial? I haven't paid any attention to it because it seemed pretty cut and dry.